Matt's Groaning

As anyone paying any attention to popular culture would have predicted, The Simpsons Movie opened big over the weekend. Big? More like huge. Domestic ticket sales of close to $72 million on opening weekend. For a cartoon.

What was just as easy to predict, but a lot less funny were some of the articles about the movie's box-office pull. With apologies to Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, here are a few examples:

Hollywood Reporter (anticipating a smash hit): "By weekend's end, The Simpsons Movie should be rolling in plenty of d'oh."

Los Angeles Times: "The Simpsons Movie is bringing in plenty of "d'oh!"

CNN.com: "Simpsons rakes in plenty of 'd'oh' at box office"

Not everyone abused Homer's favorite exclamation. Some focused on his favorite snack:

Associated Press: "The Simpsons Movie turned doughnuts into dollars over the weekend..."

And a few went the literary route:

Hollywood Reporter again: "Homer's odyssey ends at the top."

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers and a popular source of instant box-office analysis: "Homer's odyssey paid off."

One can only hope that everyone's gotten it all out of their systems.

by Mark Stein